I wonder why the guys who write web novels nowadays seem to have a habit of being overly descriptive… I feel like they think we are dumb and need certain things told to us in three variations before we get it. Only the whole thing with the 3-4 different Baumeister households, their differences and all that stuff is barely getting explained. Or atleast I don’t really get it how all that shit works. Gotta reread that one interlude chapter another ten times, maybe I’ll get it by than?

By the way, for the dummy that is me, could someone explain whether the branch-family of Heinrich can get into that whole clan buisiness with Wendelin, Erich and the other baron baumeister family, or is that branch family stuck with the Knight household ’til the bitter end?

the Capital Baumeister family (originally the main household, located in the royal capital with no male descendants, choose to have one son from the Knight household marrying into)
no land territories, only recognized nobles. civil officials.
I think that they are royal retainers

the Knight Baumeister family (created from one of the Imperial Baumeister youngest son, 3 generations ago)
they themselves separate into main branch (headed by the MC’s father, Artur, and the oldest son, Kurt) and minor branch (now headed by the MC’s second oldest brother, Herman … though the real influence is with the women, daughters from Artur’s dead brother)
the main branch owns the title of the land ownership, and both branches are considered nobles
retainers of the Margrave Breithild

the Baron Baumeister family (the MC and its retainer), with no territtories, but a gazillion in fortune, 2 luxurious villas, and yet to be formally recognized as a full-fledged household (when MC turns 16, currenty 15)
retainers of the Margrave Breithild
set up by the King to spend his fortune expanding the kingdom’s territory in the near future

Erich-niisan married into another noble family in the royal capital, retainers of Margrave Ruckner
no land territories, only recognized nobles. civil officials.

one other brother remains unmarried as of yet, but only a matter of time

at the present time, it is unclear why the successor of the Knight Baumeister main branch (Kurt) is in dispute with the MC.
common understood reasons includes that he’s an idiot with too much pride, conspiratorial and avaricious, thus maybe jealousing his youngest brother for his achievements and wealth.
he might be set up by the Klaus, the village headman serving the Knight Baumeister (who plays a dangerous game of engineering some kind of coup and protecting his family from the resentments of the 2 other villages in the Knight Baumeister territory)
and seems to be supported by the youngest brother of Margrave Ruckner … because his hated older brother seems to favor Baron Baumeister (and Erich-niisan is now his retainer)

Artur, the father, seems to favor Kurt. but doesn’t seem to harbor any special hatred towards his youngest son, thus only reflecting a noble time-old concerns of simply ensuring the continuity of the household’s fortunes, trying to avoid bloody internecine struggles

the Knight Baumeister minor branch resents the main branch for its apparent engineering of the death of the male members (brother of Artus and his sons, fathers and grandfathers of the women currently in charge)
they might be in league with Klaus (who tries to cover all his bases) for repaying them, by engineering the downfall of the main branch by shaming and destituting Kurt (with Herman succeeding)

how Wendellin fits into all this ?
well, he’s a dark horse with tremendous wealth and burgeoning political power, favored by 2 Margraves, the King and the head of the Church.
it wouldn’t take him a long campaign to destroy the Knight Baumeister’s reputation and set himself as the new “true” Baumeister main household
since he doesn’t seem to want to spend time in his childhood’s territory, this sounds perfectly fine for Klaus who will then become the local “eminence grise”

Thanks 🙂 While I had most of the stuff down, I actually thought the knighthoushold where Wendelin came from was the head house.

What I don’t get is who is the head of all Baumeisters, or if there isn’t one. Normally you have the case that the head of the origin family (In this case the one from the capital.) is the head of all branches that form from it. But in that one interlude with Helmut’s omiai they declared Wendelin the Head of their clan. This is where most of my confusion lies.
Normal scenario would be that the oldest family would politically be the one to lead this “clan”, but here they decide that Wendelins new family should be the one to lead. Why is that?If it’s because of his rank, why is it beneficial for them? All these family’s have patrons that are far more powerful/influencial than Wend. And why are they forming a clan to begin with? It’s not like that household in the middle of nowhere has enough power or influence to step on their toes. Heck, it feels like they have barely enough power to keep their terretory afloat in someway.

1) in terms of ancestry, the royal capital Baumeister are the oldest ones, therefore the natural “main” household
historically, the second son decided to cross over the mountains and set up a new Knight Baumeister household, claiming to be the only one dignified enough to carry on the name.
so technically, Wendellin was born into the “branch” of the Baumeister family (just like Herman is now heading, the “branch” of the Knight Baumeister household)
both family decided to ignore each others and have kept away from interfering.
the royal capital Baumeister helped the “branch” by sending slum inhabitants to populate the new territory. the Knight Baumeister took it for granted after a while and did not send back payments or congratulory gifts.

Paul (married onto the royal capital Baumeister)
Helmut (to be married in the near future …)

Ruckner and Edgar wants to curry favor with Wendellin
Breithilde is holding no stops to keep Wendellin at his service

so, the royal capital Baumeister holds the most ancestry, and this counts for A LOT in nobility
but, they pretty much have little to no influence.
to make matters worse, the son of the Knight Baumeister (Paul) married the only daughter of the family, at the behest of their patron, Margrave Edgar
in normal times, that would be quite a humiliation
here, it’s called a political investment … because of Wendellin

for all the Baumeister families to be “united”, you would essentially need Wendellin, the one with the highest rank (politically, but not nobility-wise) absorbs the Knight Baumeister household as their retainers, while himself a retainer of Margrave Breithilde.
event most likely happening after a severe disgrace and/or incapacitation of Kurt.
the Baumeister of the “branch” family, would now be united under Baron (until next promotion) Wendellin Baumeister, with the Knight Baumeister headed by Herman.

I would expect Wendellin to look for some freedom of action if he starts conquering his own plot (like in the savage lands beyond the demon forest), and takes distance with his erstwhile patron Margrave Breithilde.
once Paul and Erich have succeeded their respective household (Brandt and capital Baumeister), it is entirely possible that they decide to become retainers of Wendellin
Margrave Ruckner and Edgar accepting this only if Wendellin is politically neutral (not affiliated to Breithilde), and as way to have him indebted to them respectively

plus, each households would provide him with civil servant networks in the royal capital, once he start administering his own domesne

again, that’s only if the author wants to lead the story into a socio-eco-politico snadbox story…

it was the 4th generation second son (great grand father of Wendellin) that crossed over the mountains to found his own Baumeister household

Paul is marrying into a Knight Household (no precisions except they are under the patronage of Margrave Edgar)
Helmut is the one marrying onto the capital Baumeister, who also holds a Knight rank

once, each of the 3 brothers succeeds their respective households, they will still be under a different patronage than Wendellin, but they will also be his brothers, thus retaining a blood relation
that’s why there were talks of a forming a “royal capital clan”, but for political purposes of representation at the court … with Wendellin acting as the de-facto head due to his Baron peerage and reputation

however, that’s not talking about “fusion of households” and more like back-scratching each others for common prosperity

let’s say if any political calamities were to befall Wendellin, his 3 brothers could still walk away quietly from him. they wouldn’t necessarily have their households to be dismantled

I actually hope he goes into that sandbox direction, since I really like these kinda “realm simulation” things. Sadly most other novels that have something like that only do so for 10 or so chapters before they stop talking about the city/province/country management altogether.
Just love to read how an MC manages his “realm” and makes it prosper.